1. Field of the Inventive Concepts
The present inventive concepts relate generally to pneumatic valves. More particularly, these inventive concepts relate primarily to a mechanically-actuated pneumatic valve for a paintball gun that provides a number of advancements over the prior art.
2. Related Art
Electronically-operated pneumatic guns have become ubiquitous in tournament and recreational paintball game play and have also found applications in other fields and industries. For instance, pneumatic guns can be used as remote delivery applicators for veterinary medicines, pesticides, insecticides, etc. In paintball particularly, electronically-operated spool-valve designs are extremely popular among players because of their relatively light weight, reliability, low-pressure operation, and ease of maintenance. One such electronically-operated paintball gun having a spool-valve design is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,617,820 (“the '820 patent”), the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Unfortunately, however, prior to the present inventive concepts, there has not been a reliable mechanism for mechanically-operating pneumatic guns having this and other types of spool-valve designs. Nor has there been a reliable mechanically-actuated pneumatic valve for such paintball guns.